The Question Box. 21 



Mr. Chapman said that kerosene and water, one-fourth kerosene 

 and three-fourths water, put on with a horse brush, would kill them. 



Question. — We are afraid of the San Jose scale. What are 

 your suggestions regarding it? 



Mr. Smith. — Mr. Woodward says that if he finds any of the 

 scale on his trees he piles corn stalks around them and burns 

 them up. But it is claimed that fairly good results are obtained 

 from spraying the tree with crude petroleum of about 40 per cent, 

 strength. Xursery stock is being fumigated with the hydro- 

 cyanic gas, also some small fruit trees, by using a tent over them, 

 but it cannot be used on large trees, nor can all the scales be reached 

 on such trees by spraying. As the scale multiplies rapidly, if any 

 are not reached by the spray, but little progress is reached toward 

 exterminating the scale. 



A Farmer. — I have the scale; sprayed my orchard with crude 

 oil, and nearly killed some of the trees. I consider the remedy 

 fully as bad as the disease. 



Mr. Woodward. — A solution made of resin soap is fully as 

 good as the oil, and not at all dangerous. 



A Farmer. — Does the scale work on any tree except that of 

 fruit? 



Mr. Woodward. — Yes. It works on some forest trees, lilac 

 bushes, currants, and other shrubs and fruits; also on fruit. 



Mr. Smith. — If I owned an orchard and suspected the presence 

 of the scale, I should have an expert from the State Department of 

 Agriculture to visit it and begin the campaign at once. One could 

 not afford to wait. 



Question. — Can you describe the San Jose scale, so that one 

 can detect it at sight? 



Mr. Smith. — ]STo one can describe it or even detect it except 

 an expert. To prove the statement Mr. Smith showed a photo- 

 graph of a San Jose mother scale with a number of young scales 

 near it, which, he said had been magnified several hundred 

 diameters — some five or six hundred — - and yet were very small. 

 It is very difficult to detect the scale when on wood, but it is more 

 easily seen on the fruit. Spraying of the trees with 40 per cent. 

 petroleum, on small trees will destroy the scale, but it is very 

 hard to reach them all on large trees. Unless all are hit, the in- 

 crease will go on, as one scale will multiply many hundred times 

 in a season and the work of reproduction begins very early in the 

 season. I should not buy a tree from a nursery that had not been 

 treated with the hydrocyanic gas. 



